Madison. Beer and cowbells.

(Photo: Nikki) This is me and my new buddy Jake, from CXM. We met last week in Vegas while talking to JPow about his new kit, and he did the live updates for CXM in Madison. I'm sure he's happy to be back at Cornell now and free from my "high pressure" antics, which resulted in Ben's name making the headlines at an expense of an unnamed tasty beverage. :)

I love Madison. It always involves veg-friendly food and lots of tasty beer. We arrived Friday night to Amber and Jason's house and were greeted by bottles of New Glarus and fresh pasta - YUM! Saturday morning it was Just Coffee. Then, to the course.

Saturday was dry and fast. Ben went out on file treads and higher pressure- the only way to go. Not much to do. We've effectively switched the A and B bikes, since the A bike seems to have some alignment issues that make it impossible to tune the rear derailler correctly, even with a brand new hanger, so it's been demoted, and we'll take care of that this week. I spent my time in the pit cracking jokes about replacing blue locktite with bubblegum, and how using Big League Chew makes you fail USADA tests. Someone asked the Cyclocrossworld mechanic whether they had a secret preferred brand - Hubba Bubba or Trident?- but he didn't get into it, too pro. Har, har har.

The first time Ben came into the pit was the only time. He had slipped back at least 10 spots and I was worried by the time he came in- it was probably only lap 3, too. He was cradling his arm, he told me he had crashed. He didn't want to talk, the bike was OK, he gave the officials the throatslash sign and rode to the car. The silver lining here was that I got to actually get a beer and watch the rest of the race! Cheer the riders on! See the runup! How cool was that?

Saturday night we had a crew of more than a dozen- Whitney and Betty, Nikki, the XXX three, my new buddy Jake, and HAC's Amber, Jason, Tim, Zach, Al, Jacob, Evan, and more. Most of us retired to the Essen Haus for beer by the boot n' polka. (I love to polka.) Then a session of Wii where my dreams of being a future ski jump olympian were completely shattered. Boo. I did get some quality time with Amber's rabbit, Scout, which is the CUTEST EVER.(Photo: Amber)

Sunday was a totally different ballgame. Ben and I slept till 10am, then Amber made french toast with potatoes - tasty! - and we rolled to the course. The sky turned purpley grey during the women's race and the weather predictions were flying around. It was a scramble. I fixed a flat in the filetreads from the day before-- the only fix I did all weekend, but it ended up not mattering, since we looked at the sky and about 40 min before the race made the call- we decided it would rain.

Filetread came off, Grifo's went on. I pulled on my rain boots n' hat and brought the rest of my rain kit to the pit with me. 20 minutes before the race, on the preride, it rained. Good effing call, I thought. That saved us a lot of trouble, and we sort of got lucky.

Race started and things were lookin' great. Then on the first or second lap, the announcer shouts out, "NUMBER 41 IS DOWN IN THE TURN! BEN POPPER IS DOWN!" Which was sort of cool because it means he was doing well enough that they thought it mattered, but naturally it meant he fell off the group that my biased opinion says he should have been riding with.

The pit was busy all day. Some riders just kept coming back (Robinson, for example) and some had mechanicals bad enough to put them about 30 places behind where they belong (Jesse Anthony). But Ben rode strong and I stood by my lonesome, just chattin' it up with the My Wife Inc guys who were supporting Vervecken and Cameron. We talked about what not to wear in the pit, which included too-tight t-shirts with sweatpants (for fashion reasons), and also ballet tutus (for function reasons). Ben came super close to being lapped- I shouted him the warning and he replied that he knew. He poured it on for a lap, though, and ended up finishing 33rd, on the lead lap. I was pleased at being able to try out my rain hat in the pit, which was pretty stellar.

Finished off the weekend with another big-group-dinner, this time at the Great Dane with Amy, my buddy Jake, Amber, Jason, Devon and her brother, and Ben's teammates Matt and Sarah to celebrate Sarah's upcoming birthday.

It was tough to get up this morning. I'm happy to report that, one week into the off season, I'm down to running 10 miles a week and I've gained 3 lb.